Assessing the Effectiveness of Networked Visualizations in Facilitating Information Seeking in Linked Data Enabled Information Retrieval Systems

Abstract

Researchers, healthcare practitioners, and public health professionals in the life sciences domain face many challenges in navigating vast amounts of interconnected biomedical data. While most digital search systems are optimized for known-item seeking, these systems, by design, do not support information retrieval where search goals are not entirely defined, which is common in exploratory research. This thesis explores how a visualization-first approach could facilitate more intuitive and fruitful information seeking behaviors for professionals in the life sciences domain, especially individuals without advanced software engineering or data querying skills. Specifically, it investigates how different characteristics of force-directed graph visualizations of semantic data can help or hinder a user’s search experience. Leveraging visualizations to represent search systems shows promise as an easy-to-understand means to navigate complex, interconnected biomedical data, but further research is still needed to assess its effectiveness against mainstream search tools.